Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco has reason to be smiling after defeating the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Flacco is expected to get a big payday off his Super Bowl MVP performance. / Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports

by Jim Corbett and Robert Klemko, USA TODAY Sports

by Jim Corbett and Robert Klemko, USA TODAY Sports

NEW ORLEANS -- Joe Flacco told us he was good. And now we believe him.

The Most Valuable Player in Sunday's Super Bowl had a whirlwind day on Monday: big news conference in the morning, the requisite trip to Disney World in the afternoon and an evening visit scheduled with David Letterman, all the trappings of modern NFL celebrity encapsulated in one sweetheart of a day after.

When the Baltimore Ravens' field general suggested last spring that he was an elite quarterback there was a lot of polite coughing, except where there were outright guffaws. How could a quarterback who'd never been to a Pro Bowl, let alone a Super Bowl, think he was elite?

Now we know: Flacco's playoff performance compares favorably with Joe Montana, and one of Sunday's Super Bowl advertisements had fun comparing Montana to a deity.

Flacco threw 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions during these playoffs, just like Montana in the playoffs following the 1989 season. That includes Flacco's 287-yard, three-touchdown showing in Sunday's 34-31 victory against Montana's ancestral team, the San Francisco 49ers

Add it all up and Flacco is in the driver's seat - not only of the 2014 Corvette Stingray bequeathed to the game's MVP, but in talks for a for more lucrative pact from his team. Flacco gambled on himself when he tabled a long-term contract offer before the season - and won big.

He joked after Sunday's game about pounding on the desk of Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti.

"Me and Steve have had some good talks through the last few months," Flacco said. "I'm pretty optimistic. But who knows? This is a great organization. I love being here. It's a great city. I don't anticipate any problems."

It doesn't sound like Bisciotti does, either.

"Bottom line is we have our quarterback for the next 10 years, and we're going to ride Joe," he said last week.

The one-year franchise tag for quarterbacks in 2012 was $14.6 million; the exclusive franchise tag, which wouldn't allow Flacco even to talk to other interested teams, could run in the $20 million range in 2013.

"It never got contentious," Bisciotti said of last year's talks, "so I can't say cooler heads will prevail. It will just take time. And we have the franchise tag available."

Deserving of top-five QB pay?

Flacco's agent, Joe Linta, talked to USA TODAY Sports from the plane taking Flacco and his family to Disney World.

"We want to make sure it's a contract that stands the test of time," Linta said. "You don't want to be in a situation where three years from now that he's the 17th highest-paid quarterback. I'm not ready to say whether it's $18 (million) or $22 million a year. Until we sit down and see what the (salary) cap is down the road, any of the numbers you saw speculating came from other people, not me."

Linta told USA TODAY Sports during the season that his client is deserving of "top-five" quarterback money. That would put him in the $18 million-$20 million-per-year neighborhood of former Super Bowl MVPs Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning, who signed a five-year, $96-million deal with the Denver Broncos last March. Brees received a five-year, $100-million deal before the 2012 season started. Brady is halfway through a four-year, $72-million extension signed in 2010.

"From the team standpoint you try not to get caught up in the moment," said Andrew Brandt, a former team executive and agent and current ESPN analyst. "From the agent standpoint you have justification to ask for $20 million a year, $60 million guaranteed like Drew Brees.

"The reason it's taken so long is the Ravens haven't bought into that level of contract. Your leverage can't be better than as Super Bowl MVP."

Flacco is 9-4 in postseason play. His 63 wins in his first five seasons rank as most in the league by a quarterback since he was drafted 18th overall out of Delaware in 2008.

"When you do a deal of this magnitude, you look at body of work until now and what are the expectations going forward," Linta said. "He's going into the prime of his career. He's been a model citizen, and he's in that rarefied air of most playoff road wins" - six, not counting the neutral-site Super Bowl.

Flacco, 28, led the Ravens in playoff wins against Indianapolis Colts rookie Andrew Luck, Manning and Brady before trumping 49ers dual-threat star Colin Kaepernick. Was he shocked to be named MVP?

"I don't know that I was shocked," Flacco said at his news conference on little rest following a night of celebration. "I was shocked that I got a car."

He'll probably be trading in the Corvette for a more sensible SUV considering Flacco and his wife, Dana, announced during his Super Bowl party that the couple is expecting their second child.

Partying with the stars

Flacco's private party was at Huck Finn's on Decatur Street, a three-room French Quarter sports bar tucked away from raucous Bourbon Street, where he entertained family and friends, 60 of them flown in at his expense for the week of the biggest game of his life.

Wearing a long-sleeve gray shirt, blue jeans and gray sneakers, Flacco pushed open the door, grinning, at about 12:40 a.m. The party cheered his arrival, and before he could hug his wife, Dana, chants of "M-V-P, M-V-P" filled the bar. Flacco dished out dozens of hugs, posed for pictures and signed autographs for children who brought footballs and jerseys.

Joe and Dana gathered their four parents around a table for the evening's other piece of good news, which they whispered in the loud and crowded room: Dana is pregnant .

Coincidentally, Flacco's parents learned about the first child, who is now 7 1/2 months old, after the Ravens beat the 49ers on Thanksgiving night in 2011.

Flacco shoveled home mouthfuls of Cajun cuisine as guests walked up to shake his hand and offer congratulations. Then he heard his name boom from a familiar voice. It was Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis on TV, interviewing with ESPN's Sal Paolantonio minutes after the game. Cheeks bulging with food, Flacco's head popped up to look at the screen.

Paolantonio asked former Super Bowl MVP Lewis, "What about Joe?"

Said Lewis: "I told him last night, 'You want to become elite? You go win the Super Bowl.'"

There's that word again: Elite. Flacco got to meet other elites at one of the postgame parties.

"I got to meet Jay-Z and got to meet Beyonce, and that was pretty cool," he said. "I don't think that would have happened if we had lost the game.

"Just lying in bed, I was exhausted and couldn't wait to put my head down on that pillow. ... I couldn't quite fall asleep. I just had my eyes open in disbelief a little bit."

Now Flacco figures to be the new face of the franchise with Lewis retiring.

"Really, the onus is on them to try and do something," said Linta. "I'm sure they'll try to work something out with us. We're not trying to break the bank.

"This is why I opened my big yap a year ago" about his client being a top-five quarterback, Linta said, "because when you watched Joe, you could see he was seeing the field in an elite way."